Spring
on the Upper Texas Coast
From Bryan's Field Notes
April 19, 2009
Although Hurricane Ike leveled High Island last fall,
what's left remains a birdwatcher's dream. I arrived Thursday afternoon
to find Summer and Scarlet Tanagers, Baltimore and Orchard Orioles,
Rose-breasted Grosbeaks and Indigo Buntings, pouring from the sky.
My first bird on the trail was an exhausted Scarlet
Tanager flopping around at my feet. Many of the birds here had crossed the Gulf of Mexico
from the Yucatan Peninsula and the adjacent Mexican coast, taking off
the night before and flying about 18 hours before making landfall (at
my feet).
Soon after the tanager, I was preoccupied with a flock
of a dozen Indigo Buntings in a shrub nearby. Saturday, April 19, was
incredible. The place was lousy with Hooded Warblers and Kentucky
Warblers. I saw
roughly 30 of the former and 20 of the latter. Worm-eating
Warbler, Prothonotary Warbler, Cerulean Warbler, Golden-winged Warbler,
Blue-winged Warbler -- they were all easy today. (My Swainson's and Yellow-throated
warblers came earlier in the trip.) Then, after my fill of the classic
southerners, I'd get a blast of orange from an eye-level Blackburnian
Warbler; or the sun would rise when a "drake" Magnolia Warbler
turned my way. This is paradise.
April 20, 2009
Superlatives won't describe Sunday, one of the finest days birding
of my life. It began at dawn in a huge Spartina marsh on a walk to
find Yellow Rail (six of them), "Kling" Rail, Virginia Rail
and Sora. Marsh Wrens and Sedge Wrens rattled nearby as we slogged
through the marsh. With them were Seaside Sparrows
and Nelson's Sharp-tailed Sparrows (the species I was watching near here 27 years ago when Roger
Tory Peterson walked up to join us for a bit of birding).
I left the
marsh at 10am and made my way to the famed Bolivar Flats near Galveston,
where I witnessed Sunday's First Most Amazing Sight in Three Decades
of Birding: roughly 6,000 American Avocets, most of which were sent
into flight by some unknown event (couldn't find the falcon). It was
an ornigasm.
I
shall not list the abundance of other great shorebirds so that I can
promptly report on the day's Second Most Amazing Sight in Three Decades
of Birding. This occurred at Boyscout Woods, where those songbirds
crossing the Gulf of Mexico often make an afternoon landfall. I entered
a small opening to find at least 70
Indigo Buntings,
most of them males, sitting in waist-high grass (I most certainly under-counted
them). With them were (at least) three male Painted
Buntings. But a
field sprinkled in cobolt-blue flames was honestly beyond
belief. I had my high-powered lens so could not photograph all of them,
but at one point 10 males jumped up into a tree (above). Now multiply
that by seven times for the full effect.
Next, I was
back in the woods for the usual dose of Cerulean,
Hooded and Kentucky warblers (among many other songbirds,
including nice looks at Yellow-breasted
Chat). Next, I spent a pleasant evening watching waders, particularly
Roseate Spoonbills, come in to a roost (see below). It included a Swallow-tailed
Kite flyby. I ended the day (or so I thought) at 7:30pm for
12.5 hours of birding (I never really stopped for lunch). But while
driving out of High Island, a kettle of 60 Mississippi Kites (right),
hovering low over Boyscout Woods, interrupted my thoughts of a supper
of (honest) grilled alligator. I suspect the kites will roost there
for the night. So I'll try to get photos when they lift off Monday
morning, my last day of birding in Texas.
I'm living on cheese, bread,
beer, mangoes and birds -- a perfect life.
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